Introducing Art Goes Everywhere with Calin & Bisous Photography

The art superstar who will travel to you!

*This is a paid post from an APW Sponsor*

Earlier this week, a commenter said, “Why are all of the wedding superstars always nowhere near me?” To which I say: I feel you. Sometimes it feels like tons of the awesome wedding industry ends up in hot spots, and then the rest of the country is left grumpy and sad. So today I’m pleased to introduce one of APW’s own wedding superstars: Callie of Calin & Bisous Photo, and her new project, Art Goes Everywhere.Callie is based in Boston and still loves shooting in and around her fair city, but she says, “I’m so tired of turning down awesome far-away weddings because we can’t easily make it work out.” She thinks that finding your wedding photographer should be about finding your aesthetic match, not about finding whoever is closest to you, and she’s decided she’s going to make that happen.

Callie told me, “The first thing most people say when they email me is ‘We have no idea what we’re doing here, so here goes.’ Generally, it’s everybody’s first time doing this, and I want to make it easy.” So this is what she dreamed up:

Almost anything about planning your wedding can quickly become stressful. Not too many things are as easy as “I like that, I want it” in the wedding planning world. Often you must work too hard, spend too much, or break all the hearts to get what exactly what you want. I want art to be one of those things that’s easier to have in this world. I’d like to see large corporations like hotels and banks pay artists to fill their lobbies with their paintings and photographs instead of buying them from China. I’d like to see department store family portraits done away with and replaced with photographers expertly and beautifully capturing you and your kids making pancakes on a Sunday morning. (You don’t even have to wear matching khaki pants and white tops!) I’d love to see photographers flying around the world photographing the weddings and couples their aesthetics match! Lucky for me I am a photographer with access to an airport, and maybe you are someone who likes my photography. Even though you are there and I am here, we can make this happen. I even promise you won’t have to work too hard or break any hearts.

So what does this mean for you? It means that no matter where in the US your wedding is, no matter how far the nearest airport might be, Callie wants to go to there. More specifically, it means that Calin + Bisous is offering one flat rate of $4,000 for the continental US. That includes:

That part where Callie says new friend? That’s where the magic lies. (Well, there and in Callie’s intense brain, that if you cracked open, creative butterflies would swirl out of, but we’ll get to that.) Different people want different things in wedding photographers, but I wanted two things: photos that I thought were truly inspired creatively, and someone who felt like a Meg-friend to follow me around all day and haunt my wedding memories. I met Callie back in 2011, at an event APW threw called Yay New York. After about an hour of being around Callie, I wanted to know who exactly she was, and how I could make her my friend. She is one of those people who is just a tiny dynamo. She’s funny, incredibly sweet and generous with her clients, an absolute fly on the wall when she needs to be, and then this crazy-cool-funny-hilarious girl you want to be friends with when it’s the right time for her to come out of her shell. All that, and she’s the kind of person who just open-heartedly LIKES you. When you’re having that moment of thinking, “Am I cool enough to be friends with someone this awesome?” Callie answers you with a resounding, “YES OF COURSE LET’S BE FRIENDS.” That is just one hundred-percent exactly the kind of person I needed with me on my wedding day. And I’m thinking maybe that’s who you need too.

Luckily, Callie’s deal right now is that she just wants to make this EASY for you. Email her, she’ll make it happen, and you’ve made your photography decision, like that. If you hop on this amazing train before 2014, you even get 10% off just because Callie loves you. Or if you’re a friend or family of past couple, you also get 10% off if you book before 2014 because Callie also loves you. And if you’re within two hours of Boston, that price drops to $3,500 because Callie loves you and also lives near you. And if you’re having a teeny wedding, or an elopement, or you just really really really want Callie at your wedding but aren’t sure how to make that happen, call her anyway because she loves you and she’s committed to working with clients who love her back. (And that’s the kind of lady you want at your back.)

You know how I feel about Callie, and Calin + Bisous? That’s exactly how Callie feels about you. She’s been an APW reader for a long, long time, and she gets who you are, because she’s one of us too. Here’s what she had to say about APW readers, and why she wants to make this project a reality for you guys, specifically.

You are calm, you are weird and different, you trust in your vendors. You are, collectively, the most forward-thinking, fashion-forward, equal, and supportive people. You are so passionate about being ahead of the curve that you talk everyone’s ear off about APW and Meg and her team ALL THE TIME to all your friends and family and future spouses, so finally they become APW readers too. After you’re all done getting married you don’t stop reading, you don’t stop submitting, and you don’t stop telling everyone about APW when they get engaged. At this rate, we’re going to take over the wooorrrlllddd!

And finally. Her work. Callie is a true artist, and I mean that in the best possible way, not in the I’m-scarred-from-art-school-and-difficult-people kind of way. Callie is a trained cellist, who also happens to be a photographer. She says, “Alright I do have an additional career. Along with being a photographer, I’m also a cellist. I graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2010 and since then I’ve been playing for film scores, operas, releasing albums and touring the US with contemporary folk bands such as Flightless Buttress and very recently, The Ballroom Thieves. Although they sometimes feel like separate career paths, lately it more often seems like art breeds art. … And I supposed I am destined to forever work nights and weekends.” (Um, go listen to some of Callie playing, you’re welcome.) And that’s what I see when I look at Callie’s work. I see a multi-disciplinary artist, who’s playing music with her camera, and painting pictures with her bow. That, my friends, is someone I think you want at your side. Art goes everywhere. Now make it come to you.

More power to ya sister! I love creative solutions. I think what you’re offering is awesome…and inspiring to other vendors. Maybe we’ll be working together soon! Not sure how I’ll get my DJ equipment into an overhead bin (and lord knows I’ve tried to figure out how when family was getting married or partying out-of-state). Props to you!

http://www.theloudandclear.com Kate

I can personally attest that Callie is as wonderful as this post makes her out to be. We hired her for our wedding two years ago (that’s us third from the bottom!) and I still think it was one of the best decisions we made for the wedding. She is a breeze to work with and so, so talented! I still can’t stop gushing about her to all of my friends that get engaged.